1 Language Transfer Lan-Hsin Chang National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences.
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Transcript of 1 Language Transfer Lan-Hsin Chang National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences.
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I. Behaviorist Views
Stimuli and responses Complex behaviors—component parts
effective learning Habit formation; analogy Impediment to learning: interference from
prior knowledge Degree of difficulty: positive and negative
transfer Errors expected; should be avoided
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Behaviorist Views--II
Chomsky’s (1959) review of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior
Animal behavior in the lab vs. humans language behavior
Value of correction/reinforcement? Reconsideration of L1 in L2 learning
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II. Terminology
Transfer: influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired
(Odlin 1989:27)
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III. The Manifestations of Transfer
Errors (negative transfer): transfer or intralingual errors?
Facilitation (positive transfer); U-shaped behavior
Avoidance: infrequent use or avoidance?
Over-use: e.g., overgeneralization of the regular past tense inflection
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IV. Contrastive Analysis—1
Difference = difficulty Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CA
H) (Lado 1957) include steps of description, selection, comparison, and prediction
Types/hierarchy of difficulty in L2: (more difficult) split — new — absent
— coalesced — correspondence (less difficult) (p. 307)
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IV. Contrastive Analysis—2
1. Strong form: errors can be predicted
2. Weak form: some are traceable; a posteriori explanation
Strong form: theoretically untenable Work form: impractical/inadequate Lost ground to error analysis in the
1970s
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V. The Minimalist Position--2
A. Interference in language contact situations and second language acquisition
Interference in bilinguals: social factors; bidirectional; increased with proficiency in the two languages
Interference in language learning: not motivated by social factors; unidirectional; decreased as the learner became more proficient (Dulay & Burt, 1972)
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V. The Minimalist Position--3
Borrowing transfer (L2 L1) vs. substratum transfer (L1 L2): not always clear-cut
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V. The Minimalist Position--4
B. Empirical research and the CAH Not easy to distinguish interference
errors from developmental errors Error tokens vs. error types (Kellerm
an 1987)
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V. The Minimalist Position--5
C. Word order studies of transfer
Reasons for relatively few instances of basic word order transfer (Odlin 1990):
1. relative lack of research on beginner learners (most likely to have word order transfer)
2. highly conscious of word order (involves arrangement of semantically important elements)
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V. The Minimalist Position--6
D. Minimalist theoretical positions on transfer: the similarity between L2 and L1 acquisition
interference reflected ignorance of the L2 (Newmark & Reibel 1968)
L1 transfer communication strategy (a means of overcoming a communication problem)
Not learning strategy (a device for developing interlanguage)
transfer rejected transfer relocated within a cognitive framework
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VI. Constraints on Transfer--1
Language level: pronunciation, lexis, discourse, and grammar (less affected)
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VI. Constraints on Transfer --2
Sociolinguistic factors the social context: focused (e.g., classroo
m settings) vs. unfocused contexts (e.g., natural settings) macro-sociolinguistic perspective
the relationship between the speaker and the addressee: careful vs. vernacular styles micro-sociolinguistic perspective
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VI. Constraints on Transfer --3
Markedness: core (unmarked) vs. periphery (marked) rules Hypotheses:
unmarked L1 forms more likely be transferred to correspondingly marked L2 forms
marked L1 forms less likely be transferred to correspondingly unmarked L2 forms
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VI. Constraints on Transfer --4
Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman 1977)
more marked forms in TL than in the NL are difficult to language learners
- vagueness of ‘markedness’
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VI. Constraints on Transfer --5
Prototypicality (Kellerman 1977; 1978; 1979; 1986; 1989)
native speakers’ intuitions to determine the unmarkedness or prototypicality of lexical items
learners resist transferring non-prototypical meanings
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VI. Constraints on Transfer --6
Language distance and psychotypology (learners’ perceptions about language distance)
the actual language distance affects positive transfer
learners’ psychotypology governs what they actually transfer
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VI. Constraints on Transfer --7
Developmental factors The learner’s general level of development
restructuring continuum: L1 (starting point of L2)
Natural principles of language acquisition
interlanguage not necessarily a restructuring continuum, except phonology
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VII. Towards a theory of first language transfer
Communication transfer: borrowing (a performance phenomenon not a learning process) (Corder 1983); production and comprehension transfer
Learning transfer: transfer a process of hypothesis construction and testing
A framework for explaining first language transfer (p. 339)